The IEEE-1394 standard defines a serial communication protocol also known as “Firewire”. Over high quality optical fiber, IEEE-1394 allows devices to be separated up to 100 meters. Of course, with lower quality communications links, this distance is reduced. When introduced in the 1980s, the communication speed was approximately 100 megabits/second. Later versions defined in the IEEE-1394a and IEEE-1394b standards provide data rates of 200 and 400 megabits/second, respectively.
The use of IEEE-1394 interfaces for communication between electronic devices is already widespread and growing in popularity. This is particularly true in the home entertainment field where high definition television (HDTV) is rapidly gaining in popularity. To take full advantage of the high-quality picture of a modern HDTV, the set must be provided with a clean input signal. Optimum performance is obtained when a digital signal is provided directly to a digital video interface (DVI) or high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) of the television receiver. A DVI/HDMI interface allows transfer of uncompressed digital video signals, typically with high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) copy protection. An IEEE-1394 interface also allows transferring and inputting high quality digital video, and/or audio signals to devices equipped therewith.
As home theater has grown in popularity, a need to transfer high quality audio and/or video signals between different areas of a structure has emerged. Since high communication bandwidths are required to maintain, for example, HDTV video signal quality, creating such interconnections has heretofore been both technically challenging and expensive. However, for many years structures have been “wired for cable” (i.e., have networks of coaxial cable in place). Most in-place coaxial cable, however, is not suitable for networking multiple audio-video (AV) devices such as HDTV receivers, high quality DVD players, etc.